What with the election results and the weather, we all need a bit of cheering up at the moment, so Cneifiwr's day has just been improved immeasurably by reading a letter to the editor of the Carmarthen Journal. As the author says, he is not sure whether it will get published, but you can read it for yourselves here.
One of the Journal's reporters suggested that leaving out the Bible's abhorrence of menstruating women and its injunctions to murder homosexuals might have improved the letter's chances of publication in the newspaper. We'll see.
As regular readers will know, this blog likes to keep an eye on the activities of the various evangelical groups operating in this part of the world, and boy are there lots of them. They range from the lunatic rantings of Christian Voice to the rather more up-market and "cerebral" Church of the Living World, which is known to have friends in quite high places (in Carmarthenshire, that is. Not up there).
You can visit the church's website, and if you have an hour or two to spare, you can listen to the sermons.
Well, it was a cold, wet Sunday, and there seemed to be nothing better to do. It was either that or the usual, boring old satanic rituals, and as Mrs Cneifiwr has evangelical leanings, Cneifiwr tried to show her that he was not beyond all hope of redemption. So picking at random, he downloaded this one, which deals with a wife's duty of obedience and submission to her husband.
The pastor takes as his text Ephesians Chapters 5 and 6, and as he explains, these deal with three different relationships: husbands and wives, children and parents and slaves and masters. Quite a lot to cram into one sermon, so he decides to concentrate on the marital obedience theme. He acknowledges that some people find the concept of wives submitting to their husbands in all things "rather contentious", which is why he chose it, before rattling on for another half an hour to explain why this is perfectly OK.
What a pity we did not get a similar in-depth justification of slavery. This was because of lack of time rather than any problems the pastor might have with the practice, which is OK with the Good Book, and therefore OK with the Church of the Living Word.
Perhaps he does requests?
7 comments:
Carmarthenshire certainly seems to be the evangelical bible belt of Wales. If there are followers in high places in Carmarthen it is rather worrying; to paraphrase the part of the sermon to which you refer; "...beautiful women are those with a quiet spirit, non-argumentative and 'strong' enough to submit to their husband's authority as head of the family"
Still, if anyone would like to discuss such lovely topics in more detail I see from the Living Word website that a study group meets at the 'Jameses' on Tuesday evenings...I'm thinking of going myself...
It looks as if he has a lot in common with the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson who thinks that America's greatest mistake was allowing women the right to vote......
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/07/fox-news-contributor-laments-mistake-of-letting-women-vote/
I occasionally consider returning to Sir Gar, but reading you blog puts me off!
There were loads of pretty extreme christian groups there in the 90's, including I recall an Anglican church whose news letter called on its readers to vote BNP, but things seem to have got even worse.
I guess thats what being ruthless and well funded gets you.
Ah, the old Doctor Laura questions about Leviticus. They've been doing the rounds longer than you Cnefiwr
http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/Dr_Laura_and_Leviticus.html
http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/DrLaura.htm
http://www.repentuk.com/laura.html
What I don't understand is why these evangelicals concentrate so much on stuff that Jesus didn't say and almost certainly wouldn't have agreed with. They're not Christians at all, they're 'Bibleists'.
All Cristians are very selective as to what they choose to believe from the bible, which is full of contradictions. A bit like those who work in the jail house.
A true Christian is simply one who treats his neighbour as he would wish to be treated. A person who is honest, moral, with integrity, and uses these attributes as his compass. Unlike those in the jail house.
@anon 10:10
Hmmm - might not work if said Christian had masochistic tendancies.
@anon 1st comment:-
well, I'm not bad looking for an old broad. Was flattered to hear as described as a "MILF" by pimply colleagues of my daughter. But not beautiful to look at, and certainly falling well short of the definition of "quiet spirit and non argumentative" bollocks.
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